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August 2, 2018

Research News Roundup-July 2018

By Elizabeth Zimmermann

The Mayo Clinic Research News Roundup includes brief summaries and links to research-related news releases from the past month. It also connects readers to associated resources. Read on for more information from Mayo Clinic Research.

In adults over 70, exposure to general anesthesia and surgery is associated with a subtle decline in memory and thinking skills, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The study analyzed nearly 2,000 participants in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging and found that exposure to anesthesia after age 70 was linked to long-term changes in brain function. The results appear in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Almost every golfer knows the feeling. Minutes after a picture-perfect drive down the fairway, a cascade of inexplicable missed putts leads to a disappointing triple bogey.

Golfers’ lapses in play sometimes are blamed on a mysterious twitching condition called "the yips." But are yips physical or psychological? In a new Mayo Clinic study, published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers combined multiple methods to quantify golfers’ yips and identify those with a neurological cause.

The presence of senescent or dysfunctional cells can make young mice age faster. And using senolytic drugs in elderly mice to remove these rogue cells can improve health and extend life. These findings from Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators provide a foundation on which to move forward in this area of aging research. The results appear in Nature Medicine.

The recognition also supports the recruitment of exceptional staff; puts the center at an advantage for obtaining grant funds for research and education; and attracts future medical students, residents and fellows.

Mayo Clinic researchers are using precision genomics to search for undiscovered, inheritable genetic mutations that cause accelerated aging. In a study recently published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers conducted a study assessing 17 patients with short telomere syndromes — rare conditions that result in premature DNA and cellular deterioration. The ability to pinpoint the genetic abnormalities associated with short telomere syndromes is key to finding better ways to screen, diagnose and treat patients.

Damage to DNA is a daily occurrence but one that human cells have evolved to manage. Now, in a new paper published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Mayo researchers have determined how one DNA repair protein gets to the site of DNA damage. The authors say they hope this discovery research will help identify new therapies for ovarian cancer.

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